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Shopping cart abandonment is the biggest challenge for every ecommerce store owner. Check out 28 shopping cart abandonment statistics below to understand why customers abandon carts and what you can do about it.
Online cart abandonment is one of the biggest sources of lost sales revenue, and the number one frustration for every ecommerce store owner.
To minimize abandoned shopping carts, you need to understand why it’s happening. And for that, you need access to the latest data and statistics—which is exactly what this article is all about! We’ve partnered up with Conversific, the all-in-one marketing and profit analytics tool, to research consumer behavior surrounding cart abandonment.
The cart abandonment statistics in this article will help you understand why online shoppers abandon their carts and what you can do about it. Using this information, you’ll be able to reduce shopping cart abandonment and increase your conversion rate.
So without further ado, here are 28 up-to-date shopping cart abandonment statistics!
What’s the average abandoned cart rate?
According to Conversific’s data, the average cart abandonment rate is 66.5%. This means that almost 7 out of 10 website visitors who put an item in their virtual shopping cart will leave without completing their purchase.
With such a huge number of online sales left unfinished, it’s clear that we need to focus on combatting cart abandonment.
However, it’s also important to realize that the cart abandonment rate can vary based on the industry (which we’ll get into a bit later on).
The shopping cart abandonment rate is higher on mobile devices than on desktops
When we took a closer look at the cart abandonment stats, we saw that mobile users abandon even more shopping carts. The average cart abandonment rate on mobile devices is 69.02%. While on desktop, the average cart abandonment rate is relatively low, at 62.11%.
This shows how crucial it is to optimize your ecommerce site and checkout flow for mobile users as well as desktop shoppers.
Which industries have the highest and lowest average cart abandonment rate?
As we mentioned, the industry you’re operating in has a huge impact on how many online shoppers abandon carts on your ecommerce site.
The travel industry has sadly earned first place for the highest cart abandonment rates, at almost 79%.
This particularly high cart abandonment rate is not very surprising, since travel is one of the most competitive industries of all and the average consumer browses over 700 digital touchpoints on their journey to find the perfect vacation.
The “jewelry and accessories” and “clothing and fashion” industries trail the travel industry slightly, with cart abandonment rates of around 72-73%.
When it comes to the lowest cart abandonment rates, office technology is the winner at 52.72%.
The “art and photography” industry comes in second, at 55.1%. “Pets and animals” and “auto and vehicles” follow, with cart abandonment rates of around 58%.
What effect does shopping cart abandonment have on revenue?
Every customer who leaves their online shopping carts behind is lost revenue for your online store.
So if the previous numbers aren’t scary enough for you, here’s what they mean for your business: on average, ecommerce sites lost $417,814.92 in revenue because of abandoned carts in six months.
Why do people abandon their online shopping carts?
While some website visitors engage in window shopping—browsing products without the intent to buy—this behavior only accounts for a portion of shopping cart abandonment. However, it is not the most common reason people abandon their cart.
For some in-depth data on the reasons why customers abandon online shopping carts, we’ve turned to the Baymard Institute’s data.
They found that extra, unexpected costs are the number one reason for shopping cart abandonments, leading to 48% of abandoned carts.
Extra costs include things like shipping costs, taxes, and extra fees. This shows how important it is to make sure that online shoppers know about the extra costs they’ll see when they get to your checkout page. That way, they can “budget” them into their purchase while they’re still shopping.
One of the most common extra costs that come with online shopping is the shipping cost. Highlighting your free shipping threshold can not only help to save cart abandoners, but can also increase your average order value.
The second most frequent reason customers give for abandoning carts is the inconvenience of needing to create an account to complete a purchase, which leads to 24% of all lost sales.
Many people prefer not to create an account when purchasing something online. This is especially true for first-time customers who want a fast, convenient online checkout flow. Not only should you allow guest checkout, but you should also stay on the lookout for ways to create a better, more streamlined checkout flow.
You can discover where you have the greatest checkout optimization opportunities if you analyze your entire purchase funnel with industry benchmarks compared to your peers.
Slow delivery is the third most frequent reason for cart abandonment when shopping online, leading to 22% of all abandoned carts.
When a customer is excited about a purchase, the last thing they want to hear is that they’ll have to wait a long time to receive their package. Consider offering speedier delivery options, which may mean switching your fulfillment partner or simply optimizing delivery routes. While fast shipping is critical, many customers also want free shipping, so that’s something you may want to take into consideration.
Here are other important reasons for online shopping cart abandonments:
- I didn’t trust the site with my credit card information (18%)
- Too long/complicated checkout process (17%)
- I couldn’t see/calculate total order cost up-front (16%)
- Website had errors/crashed (13%)
- Returns policy wasn’t satisfactory (12%)
- There weren’t enough payment methods (12%)
- The credit card was declined (4%)
These cart abandonment statistics point to improvements that online retailers can make to raise their conversion rates. These are all issues that digital shoppers identify as so annoying that they’ll refuse to purchase a product they really like.
Although you can never completely eliminate cart abandonment, making simple improvements like clearly explaining your shipping costs, offering guest checkout, and creating a better, seamless checkout process can make a huge difference for ecommerce stores.
Using personalized popups is a particularly impactful way to cut down on your shopping cart abandonment rate.
Let’s take a closer look at how well cart abandonment popups work!
Use cart abandonment popups to save cart abandoners
Cart abandonment popups target lost customers using exit-intent technology, which tracks visitor behavior to predict the exact moment visitors decide to exit your online store. If they have products in their shopping cart when they’re about to leave, you can target them with an intriguing cart abandonment popup.
These popups show up at the moment when a visitor starts thinking that the purchase isn’t quite worth it, and they convince the shopper to reconsider, usually by offering a significant discount.
According to our in-house statistics, cart abandonment popups have a 17.12% average conversion rate.
That means that almost 2 out of 10 visitors who are abandoning their shopping carts change their minds and decide to complete their purchase. That puts a huge dent in your shopping cart abandonment rate!
Recommended reading: 13 Great Cart Abandonment Popup Examples and Best Practices
Cart abandonment emails work too
Cart abandonment emails are a great way to target those cart abandoners who didn’t react to your popups and turn them into customers.
Let’s take a look at some abandoned cart email statistics!
According to Moosend, 45% of cart abandonment email campaigns are opened, and 21% of readers click through. Of those, 50% decide to finish their purchase! That’s 10.5% additional sales.
By combining emails with popups, you can save up to 27.62% of cart abandoners, which is roughly 3 of 10 customers.
And with product recommendations in your automated cart abandonment emails, you could increase click-through rates by 7.2%.
Wrapping up
We hope you’ve enjoyed these 28 up-to-date cart abandonment rate statistics, and that you’re walking away with some inspiration about how to combat cart abandonment (which helps to increase conversions). More completed purchases are good news for any online store!
As an online retailer, it’s essential to ensure that your website visitors don’t abandon their carts. Popups are one of the best options for achieving this.
If you’d like to get some cart abandonment popups onto your ecommerce website and save more of those abandoned carts, you can register for a free account with OptiMonk and create your exit-intent popups in just minutes!
Would you like to set up cart abandonment popup campaigns? Try one of these pre-made templates:
What should you do next?
Thanks for reading till the end. Here are 3 ways we can help you grow your business:
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Written by
Nikolett Lorincz
Nikolett is the Head of Content at OptiMonk. She is obsessed with content marketing and loves creating educational content for ecommerce store owners. She truly believes in the importance of quality over quantity.
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